One of my greatest aims is to make Whitechapel a nexus for Desirable Information.

Memes, virals, that which makes you laugh, that which makes your bowels weep; anything found or scavenged online which has no informative value: that stuff will continue to go in “Around The Net.” I’ll be updating that once every four weeks too.

This…? This is for everything else.

News Stories. Mad Science. Horrific Nature. Metaphysical madness.

Here is where we gorge ourselves on the creamy clostrum of Information. Here is where we nuzzle at the red-raw teat of the Up-To-Date Dataweb. Bring me the light of your Weird Wisdom and your New News.

(Anything of particular interest, go ahead and create new threads in this category to delve deeper.)

Well, today in the US is when the SCotUS hears arguments on Prop 8 and tomorrow is DOMA. I'm not homosexual myself but I have a lot of friends and loved ones who are and I'm really hoping there will be parties in the future, rather than conciliatory drinking, over today.

Scientists have linked the underground injection of oil-drilling wastewater to a magnitude-5.7 earthquake in 2011 that struck the US state of Oklahoma.Wastewater injection from drilling operations has been linked to seismic events in the past, but these have typically been much smaller quakes.They also have tended to occur in the first weeks or months of injection.The study in Geology suggests that "induced seismicity" can occur years after wastewater injection begins.

@Internaut: The problem with any CEO resigning over lack of profits is that the successor is expected to make up that lack of profit and more. That sort of mandate leads to an adherence to market trends and conventional wisdom rather than a deviation towards interesting things.

A Brazilian doctor who appeared in court for allegedly killing seven patients, could be responsible for up to 300 deaths to free up hospital beds in the southeast city of Curitiba, multiple media reports suggest.

@Morac: True, but the argument can be put forward that in order to raise said profits, innovation and restructuring are the potential direction for the new CEO. When Square Enix was the most robust and profitable was when they were using varying artists and fresh ideas (when they were simply "Square"), but now those fresh ideas are the cornerstones for "modern" JRPGS and WRPGS both, with the main variations being the turn based system and narration styles. They need something new, and simply rehashing the Final Fantasy series to death is not it.

@Internaut: Without some sort of indication that these things are even being considered, I'm going to stick with my pessimism. Innovation and radical direction changes are the sorts of changes you get when profits have been ok but not great. A return to core values (ie. makin' money via "tried and true" methods) is what you get after major financial losses. And never forget: the actions of large companies are dictated by shareholders and not people that necessarily enjoy the product they make.

Technically North Korea has been at war with the South since the 60's.

I really don't know what they're trying to get here, with all these threats and videos of Washington in flames and so on (using stolen videogame visuals from Call of Duty games as well, of all things).

What do they think will happen if they do deploy a nuclear weapon? That people will be more willing to come to the table and talk?